How do you define leadership? 12

[thixoguy]

Hi All,

I had an interview this morning at what seemed to be a very interesting organization. They employ approximately 30 people; skilled machinists.

The company is looking to expand into specialized field in which I have a great many years experience.

The interview went quite well and they seemed somewhat impressed with my skills and experience. More importanly the interviewer stressed how my position would be to provide leadership and mentoring to some of his team members.

He has asked me to return next week and explain what kind of leadership I can bring to the organization.

My question, therfore, is how do you define a good leader?
What quality or qualities do you feel make a good leader?
Why is it that some people have an inherint ability to motivate, inspire and keep people engaged and others do not?
Pick someone who you have dealt with in the past and viewed as a great leader and briefly describe them.

Thanks in advance to all who provide input

thixoguy

 

[MechEng2005]

Along the lines of jmw's posts, I agree. I have done a fair amount of interviewing in my short career so far (hopefully that is over, I'm quite happy where I am now!). Anyways, the best advice I got for interviews was to make everything action orientated. Don't just say "I am a person who pays attention to detail." Give examples of projects that it was critical that everything was exactly right. Or maybe you were able to notice that a box of bolts and nuts were mismatched sizes before they shipped and delayed setup/installation of a project.

Anyways, the point is, I think this question would best be answered by saying something like, "I think a leader has qualities A, B, and C. These qualities are important in a leader because... For example, I personally had a situation where X happened and I did Y. This resulted in avoiding a high-cost and problematic situation."

-- MechEng2005